over tom. poor tom can never get a word out. >> tom feels so imperfect because she points out all his imperfections. >> i like tom allot. never get a chance to talk. remind me, i was on this cross country trip several years ago. on a motorcycle talking to newt gingrich. >> i can finish the story by the time -- chuck, take it away. new day, old dominion. same sequester standoff. president obama heads to virginia to warn about the cut consequences. but there are no meetings in washington anywhere in sight. also this morning, the race to replace jesse jackson jr. in congress kicks off with a packed primary in chicago. just how much power will the mayor of new york have in shaping the chicago outcome and where else is he going to weigh

in on gun control by dropping big dollars? and a deep dive into the heart of texas. are democrats really on track to turn the rock solid republican region to a slightly more purple shade in the battleground? good morning, i'm athan m manuel it's tuesday, february 26th and you're about to watch "daily rundown" with chuck todd. >> thank you, athan and carolina is my second favorite basketball team in the acc. another day closer to sequester, another day of public posturing and what appeared to be no serious attempts to stop the sequester or even meetings between the white house and congressional republicans to pretend that they might think about stopping the sequester. the only thing different today is the address, that's newport news, virginia, where the president takes his pr campaign to the docks. >> we'll all be in the tide water region of virginia where

workers will sit idle when they should be repairing ships and a carrier sits idle when it should be deploying to the persian gulf. >> the president will take a tour and make reports. virginia's largest industrial employer. according to the white house, highlight the devastating impact that the sequester will have on jobs and middle class family physical congressional families fail to compromise. virginia, a state that could be among the hardest hit by the spending cuts, of course, home for the number two house republican eric cantor. canter's message yesterday was the president is making too much of the sequester and, oh, yeah, when it comes to virginia, it might be really bad. >> we heard the president say last week that he was going to be forced because of the sekeseration to let criminals loose on the street. the president is off campaigning

in my my state, newport news, virginia. we are concerned about the comm commonwealth, as we are on all states. >> the president will have a surprise guest with him today. scott ridgeual. a former car dealer whose road district stands to be hurt by the pentagon furloughs. the first republican to travel on air force one since may. virginia's republican devastating cuts telling the president and congress it's time to fix it now. mcdonnell will join us later this house. the white house admitted monday no talks or phone calls scheduled this week between the president and congressional leaders. instead yesterday for the second thyme in a row the white house press briefing featured a cabinet secretary issuing dire sequester warnings. >> i don't think we can maintain the same level of security at

all places around the country with sequester as without sequester. if you have 5,000 fewer border patrol agents, you have 5,000 fewer border patrol agents. >> also almost gleefully confirmed that therer with no meetings that were going to happen. mcconnell's spokesman said, no, there is no active negotiation from the white house. that would get in the way of the president's campaigning. there is fingerpointing, a ton of it. >> the only republicans in the entire country rejecting a balanced compromise are republicans in this building. >> hope springs eternal. the president can sit down with harry reid tonight and work with senate democrats who have the majority in the senate to move a bill. >> at some point, we've got to do some governing. >> there are are two potential sort of last-minute solutions to the sequester that neither sides want to unite around.

the final white house offer to boehner on the grand bargain included nearly $1 trillion in spending cuts over ten years. could it be as a good-will gesture the white house offers one year of those cuts, which come out to $90 billion as a replacement to the sequester this year? then there's the plan senate republicans could offer this week, they haven't decided if they're going to this week that gives the white house flexibility on how to cut spending, but even republicans aren't united on that one. >> here's what i don't understand. we're the party of physical conservati conservatism. have we put a plan together to cut $85 billion between march and october? no. we will criticize everything he does. say, mr. president, it is now up to you to find this $85 billion in savings and we'll say to make it easier for you, but every decision he'll make we'll criticize. >> lindsay gram, a little straight talk there admitting that strategy. the blame game leaves folks at the ship yard where the president is going to today fed up with all of washington and

outsiders, aka, the republican governors, are enjoying the idea of having washington be their political punching bag. >> i could not be more frustrated than i am right now. how many more times are the governors going to have to pick up the mess of washington, d.c.? i would challenge the president and congress and leadership in congress to sit at a table and quit talking through the media. >> we're not speaking on behalf of republicans on the hill but republican governors. the contrast is, we're providing leadership. that's what they need to do here in washington. >> there's a reason it's harder and harder, though, to make deals in congress, particularly the senate. the body that was supposed to break through the shirts and skins mentality of american politics is becoming more and more polarized. the polarization isn't new, but it's becoming more entrenched. national journal does these vote ratings and gold standard since they began in 1982, sort of creating an ideological spectrum here. they confirm what was an anomaly

just three years ago is now the norm. for the third year in a row, not a single senator who is an ideological crossover. in other words, no republican member of the senate had a more liberal record than any democrat and no democratic senator had a more conservative record than any republican. for decades, there always was a couple on each side, but as national journm frames it, what had only happened one time in history before 2010 is now nearly as unremarkable in the senate as naming a post office. the most conservative member of the senate, according to "national journal" someone you may not have heard of. idaho's james reich. he is joined by john corn nn, jim demint, pat toomey and ron johnson. joined by udall, ron wyden and al franken, dick durbin and

patty murray. so are two of the most conservative members of the caucus. the threat of primaries in 2014 moved several republicans to the right in 2012. 2011 lindsey graham was the senate's 42nd most conservative member, basically one of the most moderate and john cornyn the 14th. gram leapfrogged to 42 and cornyn to 3. flagging the rankings for journalists who have written or continue to write that senator ted cruz is pushing cornyn to the right. not just republicans who are more conservative last year than the year before. north carolina kay hagan, one of the handful of red state democrats who could be in danger in 2014. she jumped from 69th to the 52nd most conservative in 2012. the senate odd couples are breaking up. ron johnson the 5th more

conservative. and a breakup of long-time odd couple harkin and grassley innide waw and in south dakota rumors that tim johnconson could head for the exits breaking up that pairing with john thune. if it's tuesday, somebody is voting somewhere. today that is chicago. to fill jesse jackson jr.'s seat. 18 active candidates, 15 democrats on the ballot. whichever democrat wins today is all but certain to win the april 9th special election. comes down to a three-way race debb debbie halvorson, robin kelly and anthony beale. one issue on the ballot, guns. michael bloomberg poured $2 million into the race to boost kelly and knock halvorson blanketing the airwaves with tv

ads. >> gun violence is out of control. debbie halvorson will make it worse. she received an a plus rating from the nra. debbie halvorson's record more guns in the hands of criminals. she will join on president obama to take on the nra for effective background checks and ban deadly assault weapons. >> the group sent out mailers like these leaving halvorson unmatched. >> this is what is wrong with super pacs. somebody can come in and spend all the money they want. in this case, one person. $1 billion from new york coming and spending all the money he wants to buy a congressional seat. it's like intimidation. >> that is what has happened here. totally changed the dynamics of this race. easy place for bloomberg to make his point. if you want to bring attention to the gun issue and flex some

muscle, chicago isn't a bad place to try it. see if he can do it in a swing district say in colorado and still he will be gloating on this one polls close at 7:00 p.m. local time. we have bob mcdonnell here in our studio and we're talking about cuts and consequences. plus, why is the republican vying to replace mcdonnell as governor coming out against his big transportation compromise. rocky road for virginia republicans. plus, just released details about what will happen once pope benedict xvi retires later this week. including how he will now be addressed and what happens to his trademark red shoes. but, first, a look ahead at today's politics planner. you know where the president is, but some other big news. senate vote on chuck hagel. speaker boehner has a big meaner today, speech that he's giving. we'll hear from him. john mccain and lindsey graham go to the white house to talk

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governor mcdonnell will be here in a few minutes, but on our radar this morning, the white house pushes back on a claim that donors are paying for access. the vatican decides what to call a retired pope, but, first, let's start with this. senators john mccain and lindsey graham will meet with the president today at the white house later this afternoon not to discuss sequester but immigration reform. but mccain and gram are the part of eight that reveal framework in january. the president's first face-to-face talks with mccain and gram. the invitation came up with the president's phone calls with all those senate republican members

last week. the senate will reconsider the failed culture vote on chuck hagel this afternoon. if it succeeds, as everybody expects it will, the confirmation vote itself will be today or tomorrow. a few republicans are expected to support the culture, despite their opposition. the backing of all democrats and 3 republicans having more than enough votes for a majority. the white house is pushing back on claims that big donors for organizing for action, the new version of the president's camp, 2012 camp organization can buy access to the president if they cut a check for $500,000 or raise $500,000. according to both "l.a. times" and "new york times" offer quarterly meetings with the president and two members of its "national advisory board." to get on that board, a group of people, you have to be in one of the group of people that donated $500,000. jay carney struggling to defend the action. >> administration officials routinely interact with outside

advocacy organizations and this has been true in prior admin strigzs and true in this one. >> $500,000 does not guarantee you access to the president. >> this is an independent organization. i would point you to that organization for how it raises its money. it has said quite clearly distinguishing it from other organizations that it will disclose its donors, but i would direct your questions to them. >> by the way, this independent organization has full control of the barack obama twitter account, by the way. the vatican has announced once pope benedict retires on thursday, he will be known as an, meritus pope but he will trade in the red shoes for brown leather ones. what he was going to wear post retirement has been in question since he announced he will resign. he is the first pope to resign in 600 years. in his last 48 hours as pope, benedict is packing and sorting

documents and tomorrow he will hold his general audience in st. peter's square. sequester time. virginia is going to be hit the hardest. if all the predictions are right. when we come back, we'll talk to the republican of virginia, republican bob mcdonnell who has a lot of intraparty action going on. which state holds the record for the longest consecutive democratic winning streak in presidential elections? first person to tweet the correct answer to @chucktodd and @dailyrundown will get a shout out. my mother made the best toffee in the world. it's delicious. so now we've turned her toffee into a business. my goal was to take an idea and make it happen. i'm janet long and i formed my toffee company through legalzoom. i never really thought i would make money doing what i love. [ robert ] we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. go to legalzoom.com today

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state, particularly from pentagon cuts where employees could be furloughed. joining me now bob mcdonnell. good morning. let me start with sequester and the message we heard from eric cant cantor. on one hand, the sequester isn't going it be as bad as the president is saying and then right at the end of his comments, eric cantor admitted about in virginia it is going to be bad. where are you in this on a sequester, something republicans -- >> it is going to be very bad for my state, but devastating to the military. secretary panetta said that. we have 19 estimates and lose 200,000 jobs over ten years, but, chuck, we have to cut spending. $1.2 trillion really a drop in the bucket. that is not even one year of the deficit. we need more than the sequester, but don't put 50% of the cuts on the u.s. military. we still have kids in

afghanistan and this is not the right way to do it. it's a haphazard policy. they need to cut spending, but don't put it on the back for our kids in uniform. >> not a single meaning plan. it goes into effect friday. you know, there's, republicans saying president won't lead, president saying congressional republicans won't -- what is your assessment here? >> my sense is that washington is dysfunctional. not the way we do in most state capitals around the country. president should meet with canter and boehner and mcconnell and others and see if something can be worked out. everybody understood, this was going to be a cut. >> do you think that canter and boehner and all that that they need a compromise on this, as well? >> they need to agree with what the cuts are. that was the understanding, chuck. that these would be real cuts that would be put in place. that was the deal to avert the debt limit, debt limit 18 years ago. >> to force a larger compromise on taxes and on the

underspending cuts. >> the understanding from most members of congress is that it was a cuts approach and $1.2 trillion. i don't think people understand that we are in deep trouble. $17 trillion in debt. and that we've got to dramatically cut spending. and that was the understanding, i think, that republicans had about what was supposed to happen. the supercommittee failed. the congress has failed. the president has failed to lead. he's the commander in chief of the u.s. military, he has to do a better job. >> you had a big political victory for yourself, this passage of your big trsportation compromise bill. eliminates the 17.5 cent gas tax. you add a 3.5% wholesale tax on fuels and increases the sales tax to 3.5%. overall, it raises taxes, correct me if i'm wrong on this, $880 million a year total. >> that's right. >> help me out here. >> that's wrong. it is about a 35% cut in the gas tax and then we use of the about

$400 million of it is general fund. current and future general funds, which means it's a future hedge spending. >> why are a bunch of republicans wrong here in calling this a tax increase? >> there are net revenues that increased for hampton roads and northern virginia. new revenues that are raised in thoseregions. i think that is correct. a substantial amount of tax reform. virginia will have the lowest gas tax and the lowest gas prices anywhere in the region, which means more people shopping in virginia and more people buying gas in virginia. tax reform at the state level, but some revenue increases at the political level. i will say that the reason this is done, we have the worst traffic in the country in northern virginia. everybody knows it and our business rankings have gone down because of transportation inf infrastructure. >> not a single republican running for lieutenant governor is supporting you on this. not the likely republican nominee and here's what eric

goldson wrote, if you are a conservative, remember bob mcdonnell thinks you're an idiot. that's the only explanation for what i can say what happened in virginia this week. >> i know people disagree about policies. i can say i'm governor of virginia. i got elected to solve problems. the business rankings and the quality of life and job creation capacity for our citizens goes down because of traffic congestion. i took it on and we found a way to fix it. would i have liked to have it done other ways? absolutely. this is the way we were able to get it done. i think back to what reagan said in 1983, he more than doubled the gas tax. 125% from 4 cents to 9 cents. what he said, look, i'm not going to let the infrastructure of the united states of america, i'm not going to let it go. hasn't been raised in 20 years, i'm going to do it. i think that was a practical way of saying that there's sometimes you have to do some things that are tough politically to solve problems and that's the approach we've taken. >> some of your bigger

supporters in the business community are not happy with the potential republican nominee for governor and they are looking at to see if the lieutenant bill bowling thinking about supporting him as an independent. what is your advice? could you ever envision supporting bill bowling? >> independent candidacies are very tough. it makes good chatter in the press, but they almost never happen, chuck, you know that. i'm supporting ken cuccinelli. he will be a good governor. we are working hard to get ken elected. i think he's a smart guy, i think he'll be a good leader. look, i'm not just going to agree with all my folks. >> your advice to bill bolling, don't do that? >> he knows i'm supporting ken cuccinelli. the press played that up as a third party race. but i think we'll have governor cuccinelli here in eight months.

>> do you think he ran a good campaign? >> general assembly just adjourned on saturday, chuck. now the race, the race begins. but we've got, we've got eight months to go. republican governors association a powerful force. i'm on that committee and we'll be helping the attorney general and i expect him to win. >> okay, governor bob mcdonnell. been a busy couple of weeks for you in the transportation front and up here at nga. thanks for coming in. >> you got it. up next, a deep dive into the heart of texas. this new effort by some democrats to try to make the reliabr reliably republican state more competitive. we have the guy who says he can do it. if the upcoming cpac meeting is the place to be for republicans this year, then why wasn't governor chris christie invited? you're watching "daily rundown." this is the opposite of subliminal advertising... there's no subtext... just tacos. yeah, it's our job to make you want it. but honestly... it's not that hard.

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today we're taking a deep dive in what sounds like a political impossibility. flipping texas, cornerstone of the republican south from red to blue, but it may not be as far fetched as you think and also not as easy as democrats would hope. at least three democratic groups are trying to plant the seeds of a revolution of sorts, counting on changing demographics to expand the party's footprint in the state. we've seen some evidence of fertile ground for the democrats. you can just look at some raw numbers here. here is the county map in 2004, as you can see, pretty much everything red except for some of the border areas there in texas. well, let's move on to 2012 and you can see where the seeds have been planted. president expanded the democratic and running some of the big counties. houston and dallas solidifying the party's hold on those border counties along the rio grande. really how, for instance it started from the suburbs out. also, of course, working in the

democratic party's favor is this shift in demographics. this is the texas population right now. 2013 hp 41% hispanic, 43% white and, of course, majority, already majority right here in 2013. let's advance to 2020. you see the white population would drop below 40%. another ten years after that, hispanics alone become the majority in texas. 52% to just 32% of whites and then you see this massively changing the demographic. of course, there is some struggles as republicans, as democrats try to do this. in the favor of republicans, they hold all statewide offices and super majorities in the texas legislative. democrats haven't won a statewide race since 1994. the republicans are 101-0 in statewide races since 2006.

statewide majorities in 107 of counties including harris counties. so, a ton of work to do. that said, let's take a look at one of the people who is trying to flip this here. jeremy byrd is a democratic consultant, worked on the obama campaign and launching an effort. i believe you guys make a big effort today to unveil some of the things you're going to be doing in texas. so, we've seen all this on the democratic front. but there is one part of the republican story in texas that's been different in the rest of the country. different in california and that is texas republicans have been responsive to the demographic change over the last 20 years. >> yeah, i mean, i think that's right. you talked at the top of your segment there about the demographic changes and, obviously, that's important. but not just demographics. for us to be successful with this effort we're launching today called battleground texas.

it will take demographic shifts and getting the population caught up and also better messaging and strong candidates. a holistic approach not just relying on the demographics but the other work we need to do in texas. >> one thing i look at florida is a place that is reliably republican for a long time. new jersey is another one and people watched it sort of change and you saw it in the suburbs first. it was sort of in the suburbs out is where things change. but you saw it on the local level. what i'm not seeing evidence of yet is democrats winning more in any county offices and where you saw that happening in say, what used to be reliable republican counties in florida, all of a sudden democrats are winning county office and that's when you knew things were changing. >> i think that's right. i think that's one of the big piece. if you look at the state and how the congressional districts are so jerry mnderred. what you want to look at is the county races.

you show the map and look at a place like hares county, which is bigger than 25 other states in the county. >> hares county, houston. bigger than 25 other states. >> and you see that. both in '08 and 2012, it was a blue county. same thing in dallas and see the same thing happening around san antonio. so, we're going to need to win at the local level and you're not going to turn it blue overnight. this is a long-term trend and take a lot of work. at the county level, a lot of effort put in and start shading it blue over time. >> chatter among democrats. it's always four more years, just watch texas. four more years, just watch texas and then the biggest issue has been when folks like yourself go on to do other stuff, a dollar in florida, dollar in virginia, dollar in ohio going to go a longer way. >> that's why we're starting

battleground texas. i have now sat in three presidential campaign offices and looked at a map of the country and say how do we get to 270 electoral votes and i couldn't go to the president or senior advisors and say we should put 30% of our budget into texas, given where things were at the time. that will continue to happen year-over-year as national groups look at the state. this is a long-term effort to do what we did in a place like florida. we had staff on the ground for six years. expanding the electorate and turning out voters who hadn't voted before in local elections and it's going to take that kind of long-term approach and a very texas senator approach. it's just focusing on texas and having organization solely for that. >> the last big effort i feel like in texas took place in 2002 when they had the perfect demographic ticket. african-american for u.s. senate run and kirk who is now the u.s. trade representative, he's leaving and then john sharpe the

lieutenant governor nominee and the idea is, there it is. there is the future of the texas democratic party. at the end of the day, sharpe may have come the closest but none of them could break through this wall. will it take more than just having the right skin color? >> it is going to take good candidates, for sure. that's going it be important at the county level, as you talked about. at the local level and statewide level and it has to be a wholistic approach. battleground texas is going to do. you look at the electorate, latino citizens in the state of texas who are currently not registered to vote. 500,000 african-americans and 200,000 asian americans. >> red string voters. it will be one piece of what we do. say take 2008, for example, only 54% of latinos in the state were registered to vote, but only 35% turned out to vote. we have to take those folks who are currently registered to vote but not turning out in elections and turn out in local races. >> give me a comparison.

so, if you didn't put that effort because, as you just said, you're not going to spend that money trying to get to 270 in 2012. how did you, how were you able to change the electorate in a place like florida versus not the state of texas where you saw if you didn't do any work, turnout was down, or flat. >> right. the program that we built in florida, for example. we registered almost 400,000 new voters in 2011 and 2012. that is people going to the doors and knocking on doors and going to events and registering folks. that is a huge difference in a state. even a state as big as florida or texas. when you start getting numbers like that. hundreds of thousands of new people going to the polls and given a chance to participate in their democracy and inspired by that volunteer, that's how you actually change the electorate, but then you have to turn them out. >> do you have the money? >> that's what we're doing. we started doing our grassroots fund-raising and that's what we're going to need because it is such a large state.

>> jeremy bird, thanks for coming in. >> good to see you. as the senate gets more polarized, any wonder why it is on sequester. first, white house soup of the day, mushroom and leek. promise you, no leaks out of the white house press office today. she knows you like no one else.

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kuwait city has been flag raised, once again, in the capital of that besieged country. the daily flashback. this day in 1991 after 208 days of occupation, iraqi forces abandoned the kuwaiti capital and troops began retreating after saddam hussein ordered the withdrawal in a radio address from baghdad two days later president bush would declare iraq's army defeated.

ending at was the time the largest offensive since world war ii. president obama hits the road to talk about the consequences of big cuts, no meetings on the horizon. hoy ha how hard is to to hash out a deal with no face-to-face discussion? writes for "national review" and bloomberg view and form er democrat from arkansas blanche lincoln. not even a negotiation to have a negotiation this week. there will probably be a photo-op chat before friday because everybody needs this to happen. will it happen all year? >> thesen why we know we won't get a deal before march 1st. no talks going on on capitol hill or the white house. the legislative aide isn't shuttli shuttling back and forth from

the white house to the capitol. the continuing resolution when government operations will no longer be funded. that's the time when you're probably going to get some type of deal that puts all this stuff together. >> but, ramish, i can't figure out how republican leaders, boehner and mcconnell, can ever convince a healthy chunk of the base to cut a deal with the president right now. >> well, it depends on what that deal looks like. i mean, i think you can see a continuing resolution as mark was talking about at the end of march that rearranges some of the spending and creates some discretion but hard to change the spending numbers. >> so, a temporary deal. nothing that would make either side feel like they quote/unquote won. >> make neither side feel like they have lost. >> but it would be fixed. >> well, you'd have the same spending levels, but maybe implement them in a more intelligent way, which is what a lot of people have been complaining about, that it is such a meat cleaver approach. >> senator lincoln, i say

ex-senator because i want you to comment on the whole national general population ratings and for only the third time ever but now three straight times where there is no ideological crossovers. i looked up your last ones. you were basically split liberal conservative and the last time you had vote rankings, 52% viewed liberal and 46% conservatives where you fit on the spectrum of the 100. and we saw two of the most centrist democrats are no longer in the senate. the middle has disappeared in the united states senate and, therefore, no deals. >> that's exactly right. there's nobody there to look for the common ground and then start to build out bringing in folks from either side. and that's where you find the solutions is in the middle. you've got to come to the compromise. you have to find people that are willing to work together and that's not happening and, you know, sequester was never intended to be policy. it was a stick to drive people

to come together, figure out what the solution needs to be in dealing with our debt in this country and grow the economy. >> so, who should, everybody is like, who is going to be the adult here? should the president basically give up his push on revenues and say, okay, he came up with $900 billion in cuts for the grand bargain. should he agree to one year of those cuts and say, okay, fine, if you're not willing to do this, here are my cuts, take it or leave it. >> they all need to be adults and come to the conclusion it will take revenues and it will take spending cuts. you can wait until the cr on the 27th, but i bet they just kick that can down the road. >> that's what i think. i don't think they're going to dothis. >> end up in september when they have to do a whole new thing. maybe between now and september to come up with some kind of plan. but they're going to have to start doing something because the american people are out there waiting and this uncertainty is absolutely killing them. >> mark, the president's strategy of hoping that the public pressure can do something, it may take a while

for the cuts to be felt. i've talked to plenty of senate democrats and republicans, sequester is probably going to be the law of the land this year. they're not saying that they won't come up with a deal for the rest, but this year, they don't see how to change it. >> this is a long-term pr campaign. what they've done in the past week is lay the groundwork to make it seem like republicans are somehow responsible for a lot of these layoffs that might aoccur, furloughs and go on in our business after march 1st and lose your job in the defense industry and you will see the republican poll numbers go down and president obama's numbers go down in that kind of conflict. >> i've seen congressional republicans say it can't go any lower. they sit there and say, that's something the white house doesn't understand. it's like, if you're dealing with political kamikazes, what do you do? >> if you think back to the fiscal cliff deal in late

december, beginning of january, you had a forcing event which was taxes are going to go up on everybody. no one highly visible thing that is going to happen this time to force action. and the other thing is, i think that a lot of democrats misunderstood where republicans are now in thinking that avoiding defense cuts was going to be more important to them than avoiding tax increases and that is not true. >> i think that's a mystery. you have the rand pauls of the world. plenty of tea party saying a cut in defense is a cut and we need cuts. >> i think so. and i think that there is enough of them in the republican caucus that really have no problem with the sequester happening. i think to some degree it. the problem is, again, these kind of cuts, these are hatchet cuts. they're not strategic scaplpals where you go in there and making cuts that make sense and programs that don't work and spending that is not beneficial. that's where --

>> one thing, you want the image of the movie "dave" where they all just go in and everybody is sitting there -- >> figure it out. >> come s in and does the line-by-line. which state hold the record for the longest consecutive democratic winning streak in presidential elections? the answer, georgia. it was 24 straight presidential cycles from 1868 the record winning streak in presidential elections? the answer is georgia. georgia voted for the democrats. in fact, the 11 states with consecutive democratic victories is all southern states, if you know your history. thanks to our friends at the university of minnesota smart politics blog. congratulations to today's winner, allen kendell. he's got the twitter handle, giddy with glee. we'll be right back. ♪

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mark murray, former senator blank lincoln, conservative political action committee. it it used to be established outside the republican party. this year we were commenting it looked like every major republican party was invited, sarah palin, john mccain, but one person they did not invite was chris christie. what's up? >> you've got a very popular in his state pro life tax cutting governor who has taken on the public sector. so of course you don't want him. and this is a group that has invited the prime minister of

canada who has also been a very successful candidate for canada. >> by the way, to the left of every -- >> exactly. >> it is -- christie, i'm sure in an election year, he doesn't mind. he doesn't want to be seen as too partisan. >> chuck, msnbc was the first to report that last week that christie wasn't getting invited to the cpac. you're right. he has no election this year. his approval ratings are in the 70%. that's where you want to be when you're facing re-election. but you never know, when you're running for new jersey governor, you probably don't want to be at some place like cpac. >> right now do you think democrats be running against a guy in a blue state? >> somebody what is willing to sole have the problems. these ideology stuff -- >> some point you wonder when voters are going to be turned off by it. they haven't yet. >> shameless plugs.

blanche, you first. >> small business. my mom is watching today. >> well, good. >> she has operated a small business for years. >> what's the business? >> farming. farming. yes. and these gals have got to do something about the regulations. >> we have a brand-new msnbc wall street journal poll coming out at 6:30 tonight. tune in. >> go to bloomberg view and find out what reince priebus told me about the future of his party and what kind of name reince is. >> all right. that's it. much more on that brand-new "wall street journal" poll. coming up, chris jansing. bye-bye. one. two. three. my credit card rewards are easy to remember

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